Many sporting activities today require shoes that provide enhanced stability, traction and performance to the athletes that wear them. For example, in golf, the golfer's footwork during the swing is complex and generates many different forces on the golfer's feet that must be absorbed, withstood and/or compensated for by the golfer's shoes. In general, for most golf shots the golfer's weight is initially loaded 50/50 on each foot and the golfer's weight is typically distributed evenly across the bottom surface area of each foot. During the backswing, a majority of the golfer's weight typically shifts to the outside (lateral side) of the golfer's back foot while the front foot maintains some weight for balance. The backswing applies forces tending to spin or pivot the back forefoot outwardly and the back heel inwardly, which must be resisted by the back foot's contact with the ground to keep the golfer's back foot stable.
During the downswing of the club, the golfer's weight begins to shift and by the time the golf ball is struck, the golfer's weight is again evenly distributed between the rear and front feet, or has started to shift more to the front foot. At the finish position of the swing, most of the golfer's weight is on the front foot with more weight on the outside (lateral side) of the front foot than the inside (medial side), and the heel of the golfer's back foot is elevated above the ground and faces rearwardly. In a proper swing, only the toe portion of the golfer's rear foot remains in contact with the ground at the finish. Thus, in the finish position, the heel and most of the outsole of the golfer's rear shoe are off of the ground, with only the toe portion contacting the ground for balance.
As discussed above, the golfer's feet make complex movements during a golf swing to keep the golfer balanced while generating torque and club head speed to strike the golf ball. During various stages of the golf swing, significant forces in various directions are exerted on the left and right shoes. Thus, it is desirable that the shoes provide enhanced stability, traction and torsional control in order to withstand and react appropriately to these forces and maximize the performance of the golfer's footwork during the golf swing. Similar circumstances exist during other sports such as baseball (e.g., during a batter's swing) and track & field (e.g., during start and running on a track), for example.
In order to address the above exemplary needs, it is desirable to optimize various characteristics of shoes (e.g., arch support, torsion, flexibility, stiffness, weight, etc.) to provide the best comfort, fit, stability and performance to a wearer of the shoes, generally, and more particularly, to an athlete wearing the shoes during a sporting activity.